UBS Hoping Clients Will Be Bowled Over By Addition Of Psychologists To Research Team, Fancy Question Box

Investors aren't as excited about to read investment banks' opinions on Chipotle and the situation in Ukraine as they once were but what if UBS told you their pearls of wisdom now included the sagely input of psychologists and people who know a lot about the shipment industry? Does that sound like something you'd be interested in?

UBS has brought in psychologists, data scientists, shipments specialists and pricing experts to overhaul how it generates investment ideas and recommendations for clients. The bank says the move — which some investors have viewed with scepticism — has more than doubled readership of its research output in the past two years. The revamp — under Juan-Luis Perez, the global head of research who UBS poached from Morgan Stanley in late 2013 — comes at a time of existential crisis for the City of London’s sprawling research departments...He has used psychologists to help analysts think about their topics differently, and pinpoint more precise and insightful research questions. Words such as “risky” are discouraged, because Mr Perez said research showed “risky” could be interpreted as a risk of failure of between 10 and “80 something” per cent to investors.

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If fewer buzz words and more Ph.Ds don't get your engine revved, what about the opportunity to ask UBS "Were the people on Lost really in purgatory the whole time?"

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They are also using a Question Bank to cultivate questions from clients directly, although not all are considered. “An analyst or economist can ask you a question for which you have no answer, or the answer is incredibly difficult to find,” said Mr Perez. “For example, a huge problem that we don’t consider solvable within our domain of expertise is the implications of climate change.”